National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball
could be in for major changes if Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and
the U-M's Tom Goss have anything to say about it. In a teleconference
June 22, Delany outlined a proposal--for which his office seeks
support--that would overhaul the recruiting process in an effort to
re-emphasize the goals of higher education.

The proposal suggests the voluntary removal of shoe company
participation in summer camps, coupled with an effort to return the
recruiting season to the high school academic year. If instituted,
moving the recruiting season could put a financial strain on some
smaller basketball programs. In fact, Delany says, the initial
motivation for the summer camps was a need to cut recruiting costs.
But the process has gone awry.

To re-establish a focus on education, the proposal also recommends
that freshmen be ineligible for varsity competition and that players
be given a two-year scholarship rather than one-year. Increasing the
institutional commitment would give student-athletes the opportunity
to adjust to college life.

While no one incident prompted the development of the proposal,
Delany says that men's basketball has seen an increase in gambling
incidents, point shaving and recruiting violations over the past few
years. "We're less concerned about the marketing of college
basketball than we are about the health of college basketball."

Delany has the strong support of Goss, the Don-ald R. Shepherd
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, and he believes there is
"broad and deep" support among other Big Ten universities. He and
Goss are discussing the proposal with individuals in other major
athletic conferences such as the Pac-10, as well as with higher
education groups such as the American Association of University
Professors, high-profile coaches and the NBA Players' Union.

"Something dramatic needs to be done," Goss says. Basketball has
major problems that run all the way down to junior high and high
schools, he notes, starting with shoe company involvement with kids
at an early age. A pattern has developed in which kids are
participating in a number of basketball games outside of high school.
In addition, some kids are flown around the country--at the expense
of shoe companies--to play in summer camps sponsored by shoe
companies.

Goss and Delany agree that a major part of the problem is that
Amateur Athletics Union (AAU) coaches, agents and middle-men have all
but taken over the summer recruiting process. "AAU coaches pretty
much control what school young men will attend. They have made it a
very difficult process for the evaluation of young athletes to take
place," Goss says. "I am against summer camps altogether. But if we
have to have them, I don't want to see shoe companies or agents
involved.

"We have a lot of kids focusing not on graduation, but on 'how
quickly can I get to the NBA.'" Elite high school competitions,
all-star games, the NCAA tournament and discussions of the NBA
draft--all compressed into an 18- to 20-month period--put a
tremendous amount of pressure on young student-athletes, Goss
says.

"I'm looking for a way to keep kids in school," Goss states.
Modeling the NBA draft after those used by the NHL and MLB would make
a significant difference, he argues. Once a student-athlete starts
college, neither the NHL nor the MLB will draft him until after his
junior year. This practice could help raise the 43 percent graduation
rate in men's basketball.

Goss and Delany realize that the proposal needs widespread support
for it to be successful. "We're not naive in thinking this is
anything other than an uphill battle," Delany says. "We need to be
honest about what we have here. College basketball has some of the
very best elements that college sports can offer, but it also has
some of the very worst. We have a responsibility to mitigate those
things that we do that put a lot of pressure on the intercollegiate
enterprise.

"That could happen in three or six months, or one year. There's a
lot here and we'll have to be persuasive and persistent or nothing is
going to happen. We're trying to move forward in a systematic and
cohesive way. It will be a challenge to get support, but we're trying
to get NCAA governance to deal with these issues in a comprehensive
way," Delany adds.